CHAPTER 1
Sirius, last of the most noble House of Black, respectful and rich beyond belief, was presently catching Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans in his mouth while attempting to stay in a handstand.
".11,.12,.13.whoa!" Sirius tumbled onto the green lawn as his friend and fellow mischief-maker laughed at his fall.
"James! It's not fair to push people down! Anyway, it doesn't matter. I still caught thirteen Bertie Bott's beans in my mouth while standing on my head, so I win! Ha, attempt to beat my new record if you dare!"
James grinned and pummeled Sirius' shoulder, leaving Sirius feeling deliriously happy. This was just like the old days, before James became obsessed with Lily. who cared about that girl, anyway?
Sirius thought back to the day that James had first met Lily. They had been throwing stuff in the lake, trying to anger the sea creature that lived there, when suddenly James dropped the stone he had been about to fling into the lake on Sirius' foot.
"Ow!" yelped Sirius, massaging his foot. "Let me teach you how to aim better!" Raising his own missile, he prepared to fling it directly at James when he realized James wasn't paying him any attention.
"What is it?" Sirius shot glances around the Hogwarts grounds.
James gestured, open-mouthed, at a red-haired girl who was laughing with her friends in the shade of a large tree. The girls were giggling over the Hogwarts yearbook they were looking at.
Sirius laughed nervously. "Oh yeah, look at that girl. Man, is she ugly! Look at her hair! Do you think she brushed it this morning?"
James, however, didn't want to make fun of her. Sirius looked over at the girl again, but could see nothing extraordinary about her. "What?" he queried again. "I don't see anything special. Are we looking at the same people?"
James was already heading around the lake in the girl's direction. "James!" Sirius called. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go talk to her," he replied, not even turning around. "You don't have to come if you think she's ugly."
For some reason, these words stung more than the rock that James had dropped on his shoe. "No, come back. Let's go steal some food from the kitchens, or. hey! There's our friend Severus skulking around the grounds. Let's go try out that spell that will make his head blow up. What do you say?"
But James was already halfway across the distance between them and the girls lolling around the tree.
Sirius gritted his teeth and turned away. He felt angry and confused; what had made James ignore him? Was this going to come between them? No way! Nothing could ever come between them, especially not a girl, he reasoned. They were best friends. Even after this thought, he was still inexplicably uneasy.
The next day, he approached James. "So, watcha wanna do today?" he asked, hoping that The Girl wouldn't come up in their conversation.
"I'm kind of not in the mood today for anything," he replied, averting Sirius' stare. "I know it's the full moon, but you can handle Moony and come up with enough trouble to have fun, right?" he mumbled, still not meeting Sirius' eyes. "You don't really need me." With that, he quickly scuttled away, leaving Sirius staring after him in disbelief.
Throughout the rest of the week, James seemed to be avoiding Sirius. After a while, Sirius couldn't bear the raised eyebrow that Professor McGonagall gave him every time she saw him enter her class without James or the smirk on Snape's face when he attempted to bully him alone. To top it all off, at the end of the week, Sirius finally saw where James had been going off to all week.
He saw James lugging The Girl's books, cauldron, and wand along, as she trooped disdainfully ahead of him. Never until today had Sirius EVER seen James act like a nerd; he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. James acting like a dork was certainly amusing, but the sight of him ditching Sirius and the rest of the gang for some ordinary girl who despised him was certainly appalling.
Well, to make a long story short, James and Sirius kind of had a fight and started to go their separate ways, until one day Sirius met Orelia.
She was always there, and it was hard to say when he first noticed her. It was just, one day he suddenly noticed her. She was dark-haired, with a quirky smile that at odd times would suddenly light up her face. Her eyes were dark and expressive; if one ever knew the language of her eyes, that one person could gaze directly into her soul. She was slender and graceful, was the sort of person who danced in the rain, cried when she was happy, ate entire boxes of chocolates, loved reading and gardening, and enjoyed passing the entire afternoon lost in one of her fantastical daydreams.
These qualities were certainly in her favor, yet the one thing that appealed to Sirius most was Orelia's dislike of Lily, also known as The Girl.
"Hey," Sirius said, casual and cool. He planned to make Orelia fall in love with him to annoy James, and then casually break up with her once he had succeeded in pissing his former friend off.
Sirius frowned. His 'hey' had gone unnoticed.
"Hey," he said again, trying to maintain his cool façade.
Orelia didn't look up.
"Hey," he said again, louder, with a distinctive frown upon his face. Was this girl deaf?
Orelia still didn't respond.
Sirius was getting mad. Really mad. Who was this imbecile who was ignoring him, Sirius Black, famed troublemaker of Hogwarts? He drew back, and with a menacing expression on his face, prepared to unleash a torrent of reproaches, insults, and offensive language. Suddenly Orelia glanced dreamily upwards, and with a startled expression on her face, leapt backwards, falling out of her chair as she registered the expression on Sirius' face.
"What do you want?" she snapped irritably, attempting to compose herself after the shock of seeing Sirius' face suddenly appear in front of her.
Sirius blinked. This is not going well, he told himself. Leave while you're ahead. "Umm. nothing," he stammered, at a loss for words. No, he scolded himself. Forget the minor, unimportant fact that she dislikes you and ask her out. the sooner you ask her out, the sooner you can dump her and anger James.
"I- I, mean, erm. well- you look very pretty today, so-" Orelia interrupted him with a 'hmmph'. Sirius, startled, looked up to see her smiling wryly. Her hair was in disarray and her robes looked as if she had just finished a match of wizarding paintball.
"Oh," he said, trying not to grin at her unkempt appearance. "Well, I mean- you, er, don't look all that bad. can I pick you up on my broom at seven for a trip to Hogsmeade?" he finished weakly.
Orelia was frowning now, baffled by his total lack of composure. From what she had heard, Sirius was rumored to be one of the coolest guys around, him and his friend James. Suddenly she remembered James. He was following Lily around. Ugh, she detested Lily. So if she dated Sirius, Lily would be jealous. Orelia remembered Lily saying that she found Sirius so manly.
Suddenly Orelia grinned. She could go out with Sirius to make Lily mad, and then dump him when she had succeeded. "Sure," she beamed, "I'd love to!"
All the rest of the day, as he ate lunch and during classes, Sirius couldn't help but keep sending triumphant stares at James Potter. he just couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he realized Sirius was dating his crush's super rival. Ha, it would be great!
It wasn't until he was heading towards the Gryffindor tower to stash his books and get fancied up that he realized that Orelia was not so bad on the eyes. In fact, she was pretty darn cute!
He chuckled to himself. Everything seemed to be going his way. Not only was he going to get back at James for his betrayal, but as an added bonus, he got to date a hot girl! As the Hogwarts clock chimed seven o'clock, Sirius found himself heading towards the Ravenclaw quarters to pick up Orelia with a positive outlook on the date.
That positive outlook, however, dramatically changed during the next five minutes.
For one thing, Orelia, it seemed, had decided the date wasn't worth the fuss of fixing herself up. It looked as if she hadn't even brushed her hair.
For another thing, when Sirius had knocked on the Ravenclaw portrait, with bouquet of Fire-Lilies ready in hand, and a "Hey, ready to go?" on his lips; Orelia, having crawled through the portrait door, simply brushed past him, motioning for him to follow. She interrupted his greeting with an encouraging, "Let's go: the faster we get this started, the faster we can get it over with." No invitation to sit in the Ravenclaw common room and talk for a while and no pleasant smile as way of greeting.
All this Sirius could have borne if Orelia had kept her snide comments to herself. When she first saw Sirius' broom, their means of transportation to Hogsmeade (the place they were going to), Orelia bitterly said, "This is it? I thought you were rich."
One hour later, they were sitting in The Three Broomsticks, impatiently waiting for their food to arrive. Orelia hadn't bothered to respond to Sirius' attempts at starting a conversation; when he had first commented on the weather, she had turned and glared at him. When Sirius started talking about what a strong defense The Chudley Cannons showed this year, she stuck her noise in the air and haughtily declared she didn't care much for Quidditch teams.
By the time their meal had arrived, Sirius was glaring as witheringly as Orelia. Silence reigned at their table as they quietly shoveled their food down their throats. Sirius noted, with revulsion, that Orelia seemed determined to show him what a disgusting slob she was at mealtimes, and Orelia noted, with satisfaction, that Sirius was thoroughly disgusted with her.
On the way back to Hogwarts, a stiff and uncomfortable silence developed between them
Suddenly Orelia couldn't help herself; her sense of humor overpowering her resolve, she couldn't help but laugh at the situation she was in.
This laugh was all the invitation Sirius needed to join in with relief. In spite of himself, a foolish grin spread across his face.
"Ahhh, ha-ha. oh, oh.I'm sorry, but- so funny. hee-hee, oh- can't breathe.just- can't stop- laughing!"
Gasping, Orelia tried to explain her rude behavior without revealing the reasons she had accepted this date. Suddenly she realized that she didn't want to hurt Sirius' feelings. This realization was quite puzzling, and she baffled herself about for the rest of the return trip.
The silence after laughing together was more companionable than the silence of the one before. Sirius was content to travel in this silence, without any desire to break it. As he firmly guided his broomstick along the path home, Sirius was suddenly more aware of Orelia's warm arms clad in their silken sleeves encircled around his waist. He found himself dwelling on the memory of her clear laughter moments before and of the way her face brightened when she smiled.
This would not do at all. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he straightened and drew away from her warm body behind him on the broomstick.
Orelia felt him draw away and for some reason was inexplicably sad. She thought about the meal they had just left, and realized that because of her behavior, Sirius must think her a dirty slob of an imbecile. She bit her lip, vainly trying to think of something to say.
"Ummm. well, I just wanted to know, I had a good time and I think we should do this again, next Friday maybe?"
Sirius found himself chuckling. He had never heard Orelia, of all people, to be at a loss for words before. Orelia, hearing his deep-throated chuckle, joined in with her own happy giggle. Laughing and joking together, they finished the evening in excellent humor.
Sirius was very happy at the thought of another date with Orelia. He was just discovering that she could be very fun to be around. "Anytime you want to go on another secret, illegal trip to Hogsmeade, I'm your man. But how about a walk on the grounds next month on the full moon? It will be fun!"
Orelia accepted the offer, although feeling a little rejected at the thought of not seeing him for a month. Sirius soon enlightened her by inviting her on an excursion with him two days from now. They made plans to work on homework in the library one day, eat breakfast together another, and Sirius even offered to help her with her Transfiguration homework.
The month passed in a pleasant way, and the full moon arrived. Sirius and Orelia snuck out together at night, and together they began a midnight tour of the Quidditch field. Sirius, goofing off, began pretending to announce a famous Quidditch game as Orelia contributed to the merriment with clear peals of laughter and graceful twirling.
A rustling in the bushes and a disgruntled meow put an end to their fun. Quick as a flash, Orelia and Sirius raced to hide behind the nearest tree. Meows were a bad sign at Hogwarts. the janitor, Argus Filch, Sr. and his cat Mr. Norris, were always prowling around to get anyone into trouble.
Footsteps drew closer. The unmistakable sound of Mr. Filch, Sr. cursing under his breath came from the other side of the tree they were hiding behind! Bushes scratched Sirius' legs. Orelia's ragged breathing resounded in the air next to him. Touching her shoulder, he motioned for her to be quiet. He himself didn't even dare to breathe. His heart was beating far too loud for comfort as he hid behind the tree, straining his ears to hear something. Suddenly, there was silence.
Straightening up from where he had crouched behind the tree and breathing a sigh of relief that was echoed by his companion, he found himself face-to- face with her.
He hardly dared to blink or move lest Orelia withdraw her face. Spontaneously, on a sudden whim, he leaned forward quickly and brought his lips to her own. A sudden flash jolted through his body. Her lips were warm and smelled of honey. Her breath warmed and tingled his cheek. The closeness, her lips, her scent, and her expression all affected him in odd ways, leaving him feeling giddy and light-headed.
Startled as much by his own action as much as by her reaction, he pulled away. Orelia, however, wasn't ready to let him go. That kiss had seemed right, felt right, been right. Pulling him back to her, she tasted his lips once more, briefly, and then drew away.
Suddenly shy with one another, they retired early that night, needing to think. Sirius hadn't planned on falling in love with Orelia; their relationship was all just part of the plan. He fell asleep, pondering over the matter and dreaming of their kiss.
Orelia didn't find sleep so easily. She thought about where their relationship was going, their kiss, how this tied in with her plan, how his lips were so soft, how she needed to make a choice between following the plan and Sirius Black, about how she wanted to kiss him again, about how she was in love with Sirius, and that Sirius was a great kisser. Obviously, she couldn't concentrate very well. She ended up deciding to follow the plan except leave out the part that included dumping him. Once she decided this, she stayed up another hour, reliving every detail a hundred times, before she finally fell asleep dreaming of their kiss.
Awakening the next morning, they felt awkward around each other, knowing that they both were thinking of each other's lips. Finally Sirius broke the silence.
"Hey, about last night-" he ventured. "Sh. don't talk about it. It's done. I'm not sorry, and I hope you're not."
A sly smile spread over Sirius' face.
"A second kiss would help me to stop obsessing over the first one."
Orelia laughed, but Sirius ran over and covered her mouth with his own in mid-laugh.
Knowing that they each felt the same way about this kiss, they were much more bold.
Orelia dug her hands in his hair, and Sirius circled his arms around her waist.
Laughing, they separated and walked to the base of the Grand Staircase.
Sirius was aware of James following him and slowed own. Orelia, not wishing to intrude upon their friendship, moved away.
"Hey," he said warily. "What's up?" James shrugged and looked lost for words. "Well?" Sirius asked, neither unkindly nor nicely.
"It's just." James began. "I'm just wondering if you and the gang are up to stealing that book of spells from the Restricted Section that will tech us how to shrink Snape's ears and limbs."
Sirius laughed. "Ah yes, that was a funny one. A good spell, that one. Too bad you missed it."
James' face fell on hearing that the gang had just forgotten him. Sirius' face, which until then had been guarded, split into a carefree grin as he threw back his head and laughed
"Prongs, old boy, you are too gullible," Sirius chuckled. "I see you have been out of practice following that Lily Girl around."
James grinned shyly. "I'm just sorry for ditching you. I shouldn't have-" Sirius interrupted. "Come off it, Prongs, you know there are no grudges between brothers!"
Once James saw that everything was okay between him and Sirius, and therefore the rest of the gang, he was much more like his old self.
Together the reunited duo climbed the Grand Staircase to their next class they had together, chattering about every great trick they had even considered doing in each other's absence.
As they climbed the Grand Staircase, if they had looked back they would have seen a slender dark-haired girl, staring earnestly at Sirius' back, wondering if she would be remembered.
Sirius, last of the most noble House of Black, respectful and rich beyond belief, was presently catching Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans in his mouth while attempting to stay in a handstand.
".11,.12,.13.whoa!" Sirius tumbled onto the green lawn as his friend and fellow mischief-maker laughed at his fall.
"James! It's not fair to push people down! Anyway, it doesn't matter. I still caught thirteen Bertie Bott's beans in my mouth while standing on my head, so I win! Ha, attempt to beat my new record if you dare!"
James grinned and pummeled Sirius' shoulder, leaving Sirius feeling deliriously happy. This was just like the old days, before James became obsessed with Lily. who cared about that girl, anyway?
Sirius thought back to the day that James had first met Lily. They had been throwing stuff in the lake, trying to anger the sea creature that lived there, when suddenly James dropped the stone he had been about to fling into the lake on Sirius' foot.
"Ow!" yelped Sirius, massaging his foot. "Let me teach you how to aim better!" Raising his own missile, he prepared to fling it directly at James when he realized James wasn't paying him any attention.
"What is it?" Sirius shot glances around the Hogwarts grounds.
James gestured, open-mouthed, at a red-haired girl who was laughing with her friends in the shade of a large tree. The girls were giggling over the Hogwarts yearbook they were looking at.
Sirius laughed nervously. "Oh yeah, look at that girl. Man, is she ugly! Look at her hair! Do you think she brushed it this morning?"
James, however, didn't want to make fun of her. Sirius looked over at the girl again, but could see nothing extraordinary about her. "What?" he queried again. "I don't see anything special. Are we looking at the same people?"
James was already heading around the lake in the girl's direction. "James!" Sirius called. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go talk to her," he replied, not even turning around. "You don't have to come if you think she's ugly."
For some reason, these words stung more than the rock that James had dropped on his shoe. "No, come back. Let's go steal some food from the kitchens, or. hey! There's our friend Severus skulking around the grounds. Let's go try out that spell that will make his head blow up. What do you say?"
But James was already halfway across the distance between them and the girls lolling around the tree.
Sirius gritted his teeth and turned away. He felt angry and confused; what had made James ignore him? Was this going to come between them? No way! Nothing could ever come between them, especially not a girl, he reasoned. They were best friends. Even after this thought, he was still inexplicably uneasy.
The next day, he approached James. "So, watcha wanna do today?" he asked, hoping that The Girl wouldn't come up in their conversation.
"I'm kind of not in the mood today for anything," he replied, averting Sirius' stare. "I know it's the full moon, but you can handle Moony and come up with enough trouble to have fun, right?" he mumbled, still not meeting Sirius' eyes. "You don't really need me." With that, he quickly scuttled away, leaving Sirius staring after him in disbelief.
Throughout the rest of the week, James seemed to be avoiding Sirius. After a while, Sirius couldn't bear the raised eyebrow that Professor McGonagall gave him every time she saw him enter her class without James or the smirk on Snape's face when he attempted to bully him alone. To top it all off, at the end of the week, Sirius finally saw where James had been going off to all week.
He saw James lugging The Girl's books, cauldron, and wand along, as she trooped disdainfully ahead of him. Never until today had Sirius EVER seen James act like a nerd; he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. James acting like a dork was certainly amusing, but the sight of him ditching Sirius and the rest of the gang for some ordinary girl who despised him was certainly appalling.
Well, to make a long story short, James and Sirius kind of had a fight and started to go their separate ways, until one day Sirius met Orelia.
She was always there, and it was hard to say when he first noticed her. It was just, one day he suddenly noticed her. She was dark-haired, with a quirky smile that at odd times would suddenly light up her face. Her eyes were dark and expressive; if one ever knew the language of her eyes, that one person could gaze directly into her soul. She was slender and graceful, was the sort of person who danced in the rain, cried when she was happy, ate entire boxes of chocolates, loved reading and gardening, and enjoyed passing the entire afternoon lost in one of her fantastical daydreams.
These qualities were certainly in her favor, yet the one thing that appealed to Sirius most was Orelia's dislike of Lily, also known as The Girl.
"Hey," Sirius said, casual and cool. He planned to make Orelia fall in love with him to annoy James, and then casually break up with her once he had succeeded in pissing his former friend off.
Sirius frowned. His 'hey' had gone unnoticed.
"Hey," he said again, trying to maintain his cool façade.
Orelia didn't look up.
"Hey," he said again, louder, with a distinctive frown upon his face. Was this girl deaf?
Orelia still didn't respond.
Sirius was getting mad. Really mad. Who was this imbecile who was ignoring him, Sirius Black, famed troublemaker of Hogwarts? He drew back, and with a menacing expression on his face, prepared to unleash a torrent of reproaches, insults, and offensive language. Suddenly Orelia glanced dreamily upwards, and with a startled expression on her face, leapt backwards, falling out of her chair as she registered the expression on Sirius' face.
"What do you want?" she snapped irritably, attempting to compose herself after the shock of seeing Sirius' face suddenly appear in front of her.
Sirius blinked. This is not going well, he told himself. Leave while you're ahead. "Umm. nothing," he stammered, at a loss for words. No, he scolded himself. Forget the minor, unimportant fact that she dislikes you and ask her out. the sooner you ask her out, the sooner you can dump her and anger James.
"I- I, mean, erm. well- you look very pretty today, so-" Orelia interrupted him with a 'hmmph'. Sirius, startled, looked up to see her smiling wryly. Her hair was in disarray and her robes looked as if she had just finished a match of wizarding paintball.
"Oh," he said, trying not to grin at her unkempt appearance. "Well, I mean- you, er, don't look all that bad. can I pick you up on my broom at seven for a trip to Hogsmeade?" he finished weakly.
Orelia was frowning now, baffled by his total lack of composure. From what she had heard, Sirius was rumored to be one of the coolest guys around, him and his friend James. Suddenly she remembered James. He was following Lily around. Ugh, she detested Lily. So if she dated Sirius, Lily would be jealous. Orelia remembered Lily saying that she found Sirius so manly.
Suddenly Orelia grinned. She could go out with Sirius to make Lily mad, and then dump him when she had succeeded. "Sure," she beamed, "I'd love to!"
All the rest of the day, as he ate lunch and during classes, Sirius couldn't help but keep sending triumphant stares at James Potter. he just couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he realized Sirius was dating his crush's super rival. Ha, it would be great!
It wasn't until he was heading towards the Gryffindor tower to stash his books and get fancied up that he realized that Orelia was not so bad on the eyes. In fact, she was pretty darn cute!
He chuckled to himself. Everything seemed to be going his way. Not only was he going to get back at James for his betrayal, but as an added bonus, he got to date a hot girl! As the Hogwarts clock chimed seven o'clock, Sirius found himself heading towards the Ravenclaw quarters to pick up Orelia with a positive outlook on the date.
That positive outlook, however, dramatically changed during the next five minutes.
For one thing, Orelia, it seemed, had decided the date wasn't worth the fuss of fixing herself up. It looked as if she hadn't even brushed her hair.
For another thing, when Sirius had knocked on the Ravenclaw portrait, with bouquet of Fire-Lilies ready in hand, and a "Hey, ready to go?" on his lips; Orelia, having crawled through the portrait door, simply brushed past him, motioning for him to follow. She interrupted his greeting with an encouraging, "Let's go: the faster we get this started, the faster we can get it over with." No invitation to sit in the Ravenclaw common room and talk for a while and no pleasant smile as way of greeting.
All this Sirius could have borne if Orelia had kept her snide comments to herself. When she first saw Sirius' broom, their means of transportation to Hogsmeade (the place they were going to), Orelia bitterly said, "This is it? I thought you were rich."
One hour later, they were sitting in The Three Broomsticks, impatiently waiting for their food to arrive. Orelia hadn't bothered to respond to Sirius' attempts at starting a conversation; when he had first commented on the weather, she had turned and glared at him. When Sirius started talking about what a strong defense The Chudley Cannons showed this year, she stuck her noise in the air and haughtily declared she didn't care much for Quidditch teams.
By the time their meal had arrived, Sirius was glaring as witheringly as Orelia. Silence reigned at their table as they quietly shoveled their food down their throats. Sirius noted, with revulsion, that Orelia seemed determined to show him what a disgusting slob she was at mealtimes, and Orelia noted, with satisfaction, that Sirius was thoroughly disgusted with her.
On the way back to Hogwarts, a stiff and uncomfortable silence developed between them
Suddenly Orelia couldn't help herself; her sense of humor overpowering her resolve, she couldn't help but laugh at the situation she was in.
This laugh was all the invitation Sirius needed to join in with relief. In spite of himself, a foolish grin spread across his face.
"Ahhh, ha-ha. oh, oh.I'm sorry, but- so funny. hee-hee, oh- can't breathe.just- can't stop- laughing!"
Gasping, Orelia tried to explain her rude behavior without revealing the reasons she had accepted this date. Suddenly she realized that she didn't want to hurt Sirius' feelings. This realization was quite puzzling, and she baffled herself about for the rest of the return trip.
The silence after laughing together was more companionable than the silence of the one before. Sirius was content to travel in this silence, without any desire to break it. As he firmly guided his broomstick along the path home, Sirius was suddenly more aware of Orelia's warm arms clad in their silken sleeves encircled around his waist. He found himself dwelling on the memory of her clear laughter moments before and of the way her face brightened when she smiled.
This would not do at all. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he straightened and drew away from her warm body behind him on the broomstick.
Orelia felt him draw away and for some reason was inexplicably sad. She thought about the meal they had just left, and realized that because of her behavior, Sirius must think her a dirty slob of an imbecile. She bit her lip, vainly trying to think of something to say.
"Ummm. well, I just wanted to know, I had a good time and I think we should do this again, next Friday maybe?"
Sirius found himself chuckling. He had never heard Orelia, of all people, to be at a loss for words before. Orelia, hearing his deep-throated chuckle, joined in with her own happy giggle. Laughing and joking together, they finished the evening in excellent humor.
Sirius was very happy at the thought of another date with Orelia. He was just discovering that she could be very fun to be around. "Anytime you want to go on another secret, illegal trip to Hogsmeade, I'm your man. But how about a walk on the grounds next month on the full moon? It will be fun!"
Orelia accepted the offer, although feeling a little rejected at the thought of not seeing him for a month. Sirius soon enlightened her by inviting her on an excursion with him two days from now. They made plans to work on homework in the library one day, eat breakfast together another, and Sirius even offered to help her with her Transfiguration homework.
The month passed in a pleasant way, and the full moon arrived. Sirius and Orelia snuck out together at night, and together they began a midnight tour of the Quidditch field. Sirius, goofing off, began pretending to announce a famous Quidditch game as Orelia contributed to the merriment with clear peals of laughter and graceful twirling.
A rustling in the bushes and a disgruntled meow put an end to their fun. Quick as a flash, Orelia and Sirius raced to hide behind the nearest tree. Meows were a bad sign at Hogwarts. the janitor, Argus Filch, Sr. and his cat Mr. Norris, were always prowling around to get anyone into trouble.
Footsteps drew closer. The unmistakable sound of Mr. Filch, Sr. cursing under his breath came from the other side of the tree they were hiding behind! Bushes scratched Sirius' legs. Orelia's ragged breathing resounded in the air next to him. Touching her shoulder, he motioned for her to be quiet. He himself didn't even dare to breathe. His heart was beating far too loud for comfort as he hid behind the tree, straining his ears to hear something. Suddenly, there was silence.
Straightening up from where he had crouched behind the tree and breathing a sigh of relief that was echoed by his companion, he found himself face-to- face with her.
He hardly dared to blink or move lest Orelia withdraw her face. Spontaneously, on a sudden whim, he leaned forward quickly and brought his lips to her own. A sudden flash jolted through his body. Her lips were warm and smelled of honey. Her breath warmed and tingled his cheek. The closeness, her lips, her scent, and her expression all affected him in odd ways, leaving him feeling giddy and light-headed.
Startled as much by his own action as much as by her reaction, he pulled away. Orelia, however, wasn't ready to let him go. That kiss had seemed right, felt right, been right. Pulling him back to her, she tasted his lips once more, briefly, and then drew away.
Suddenly shy with one another, they retired early that night, needing to think. Sirius hadn't planned on falling in love with Orelia; their relationship was all just part of the plan. He fell asleep, pondering over the matter and dreaming of their kiss.
Orelia didn't find sleep so easily. She thought about where their relationship was going, their kiss, how this tied in with her plan, how his lips were so soft, how she needed to make a choice between following the plan and Sirius Black, about how she wanted to kiss him again, about how she was in love with Sirius, and that Sirius was a great kisser. Obviously, she couldn't concentrate very well. She ended up deciding to follow the plan except leave out the part that included dumping him. Once she decided this, she stayed up another hour, reliving every detail a hundred times, before she finally fell asleep dreaming of their kiss.
Awakening the next morning, they felt awkward around each other, knowing that they both were thinking of each other's lips. Finally Sirius broke the silence.
"Hey, about last night-" he ventured. "Sh. don't talk about it. It's done. I'm not sorry, and I hope you're not."
A sly smile spread over Sirius' face.
"A second kiss would help me to stop obsessing over the first one."
Orelia laughed, but Sirius ran over and covered her mouth with his own in mid-laugh.
Knowing that they each felt the same way about this kiss, they were much more bold.
Orelia dug her hands in his hair, and Sirius circled his arms around her waist.
Laughing, they separated and walked to the base of the Grand Staircase.
Sirius was aware of James following him and slowed own. Orelia, not wishing to intrude upon their friendship, moved away.
"Hey," he said warily. "What's up?" James shrugged and looked lost for words. "Well?" Sirius asked, neither unkindly nor nicely.
"It's just." James began. "I'm just wondering if you and the gang are up to stealing that book of spells from the Restricted Section that will tech us how to shrink Snape's ears and limbs."
Sirius laughed. "Ah yes, that was a funny one. A good spell, that one. Too bad you missed it."
James' face fell on hearing that the gang had just forgotten him. Sirius' face, which until then had been guarded, split into a carefree grin as he threw back his head and laughed
"Prongs, old boy, you are too gullible," Sirius chuckled. "I see you have been out of practice following that Lily Girl around."
James grinned shyly. "I'm just sorry for ditching you. I shouldn't have-" Sirius interrupted. "Come off it, Prongs, you know there are no grudges between brothers!"
Once James saw that everything was okay between him and Sirius, and therefore the rest of the gang, he was much more like his old self.
Together the reunited duo climbed the Grand Staircase to their next class they had together, chattering about every great trick they had even considered doing in each other's absence.
As they climbed the Grand Staircase, if they had looked back they would have seen a slender dark-haired girl, staring earnestly at Sirius' back, wondering if she would be remembered.